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The freak hung up So did Billy

Collaborators

The masticated ham and the bread and the mayonnaise turned in his stoht actually communicate by telephone, he could have been prepared to record thewouldn’t be persuasive to the cops, anyway, unless the body of a redhead turned up And if such a corpse was found, planted evidence would most likely tie it to Billy The air conditioner worked well, yet the kitchen air see, and it cloyed in his throat, and lay heavy in his lungs Waste the bitch

Without anyleft the house, Billy found hi the back-porch steps He didn’t knohere he was going

He sat on the steps

He stared at the sky, at the trees, at the backyard

He looked at his hands He didn’t recognize them

Chapter 35

He left town by a circuitous route and saw no one following With no corpse burrito in the Explorer, Billy risked exceeding the speed limit most of the way to the southern end of the county A hot wind quarreled at the brokenoutin the driver’s door as he crossed the Napa city limits at 1:52 PM Napa is a quaint, rather picturesque town, for the most part naturally so, not by dint of politicians and corporations conspiring to reconceive it as a theme park on the model of Disneyland, a fate of many places in California Harry Avarkian, Billy’s attorney, had offices don, not far from the courthouse, on a street lined with ancient olive trees He was expecting Billy and greeted hi Fiftyish, tall and solid, avuncular, with a rubbery face and quick smile, Harry looked like the spokesman for a miracle hair restorer He had a head of wiry black hair so thick that it looked as though a barber ht have to tend to it daily, a walrus mustache, and such a thatch of crisp black hairs on the backs of his big hands that he looked as if he ht be prone to hibernate in winter

He worked at an antique partner’s desk, so that when Billy sat opposite him, the relationship didn’t seem like that of attorney and client but like that of friends engaged in a business enterprise

After the usual how-ya-beens and talk of the heat, Harry said, "So what’s so important that we couldn’t do it by phone?"

"It’s not that I didn’t want to talk on the phone," Billy lied The rest was true enough: "I had to coht as well sit doith you in person and ask about what’s troubling me"

"So hitabout the law"

"It’s about the trust fund that takes care of Barbara" Harry Avarkian and Gi Minh "George" Nguyen, Billy’s accountant, were the other two trustees on the three-o, I reviewed the second quarter’s financial statement,"

Harry said "Return was fourteen percent Excellent in this rowing steadily"

"We’re sht worrying is there a way anyone could get at the pot?"

"The pot? You , worry about an asteroid hitting the earth"

"I worry I can’t help it"

"Billy, I drew up those trust docunat’s ass Besides, with you guarding the vault for her, nobody’s going to pinch a nickel"

"Ihappens to me"

"You’re only thirty-four From my perspective, you’re barely past puberty"

"Mozart died younger than thirty-four"

"This isn’t the eighteenth century, and you don’t even play the piano,"

Harry said, "so the comparison ?"

"I’ve felt better," Billy adave hi serious"

"You’re pale for su , but a truck could always hit me"

"Have they been after you lately, these trucks? Have you had to dodge a few? Since ere you baptized a pessimist?"

"What about Dardre?"

Dardre was Barbara’s sister They were twins, but fraternal, not identical They looked nothing alike, and were radically different people, as well

"The court not only pulled her plug," Harry said, "they cut it off and took out her batteries"

"I know, but--"

"She’s an Energizer Bunny of Evil, all right, but she’s ascheese I ate for lunch a week ago"

Barbara and Dardre’saddict She had never identified their father, and on their birth certificates, the twins had their mother’s maiden nairls were two, and they were removed from their mother’s custody and placed in a foster home Cicily died eleven months later

Until they were five, the sisters had been shuffled through the same series of foster homes Thereafter they were separated

Barbara had never seen Dardre again In fact when, at the age of twentyone, she tracked down and tried to reestablish a relationship with her sister, she had been rebuffed

While not as self-destructive as Cicily, Dardre had acquired her al chemical compounds and the party life She found her cleanand-sober sibling to be boring and uncool Eight years later, after extensive media attention to the case, when the insurance co-term care, Dardre developed a deep emotional attachment to her sister As Barbara’s only known blood relative, she had brought legal action to be declared sole trustee Fortunately, at good Harry’s urging, iened, in this office, si each other as heirs and executors

Dardre’s history, tactics, and unconcealed avarice had earned her the judge’s scorn Her action had been diset another court to reinstate her case She had not been successful They hadn’t heard from her in two years

Now Billy said, "But if I died--"

"You’ve selected contingent trustees to replace you If you’re run down by a truck, one of them will"